Interview with Laura from Climate Partner
From now on, not only are our products 100% climate neutral, but also our entire company. Laura from Climate Partner tells you in an interview what that means and how our climate neutrality is ensured.
How long have you been with Climate Partner and what are you responsible for there?
I've been with ClimatePartner for over 2.5 years. There I work in the customer care department, which means that I support our customers - like MONACO DUCK - in implementing climate neutrality. This ranges from data acquisition and calculation to marketing questions. In the last few years I have mainly specialized in customers from the textile sector, as the requirements there are often more complex. I previously studied environmental engineering for my master’s degree.
What is particularly important to you when it comes to climate neutrality?
At the moment it is the case that emissions are always generated as long as something is being produced. One should take responsibility for these emissions. Compensating for the unavoidable emissions is the right way to do this. Climate protection projects are very effective and are strictly checked, so you can rely on the proven savings. I think it's great that this creates the opportunity to use simple means to bring knowledge and technologies to countries that otherwise have little access to it.
What does climate neutrality mean in business?
Companies, processes and products whose CO2-Emissions have been calculated and offset by supporting internationally recognized climate protection projects. The compensation of CO2In addition to avoidance and reduction, emissions are another important step in holistic climate protection.
Climate neutral, CO2-frei - what does that mean and what is MONACO DUCK?
Climate-neutral does not mean CO2-free. If a product or service is CO2-free, this means that no CO2 emissions have been generated during production or provision - and that in the entire supply chain, including raw materials, logistics and packaging. Climate-neutral, on the other hand, means that the CO2 emissions of a product are calculated according to current standards and, in a second step, offset by a certified climate protection project. There are practically no CO2-free products, as the procurement of raw materials, for example, is virtually impossible without the emission of CO2Emissions is. MONACO DUCK is therefore climate-neutral, but not CO2-free.
We are like our CO2-Emissions from the two projects "Stop the plastic flood - marine protection" and "Better power supply and sustainable Development in India" off, not on site. Is that OK?
Greenhouse gases such as CO2 are distributed evenly in the atmosphere, so the greenhouse gas concentration is roughly the same everywhere on earth. It is therefore irrelevant for the global greenhouse gas concentration and the greenhouse effect where on earth emissions are caused or avoided. Emissions that cannot be avoided locally can therefore be offset at another location, just like you do.
Is it still better to support projects on site?
Regionality should never be the first criterion, especially when it comes to climate protection, because after all, climate change is a global problem that can only be adequately addressed through global solutions. In addition, the Clean Development Mechanism would like to support precisely those regions in which there is currently little or no climate protection - and where the effects of climate change are usually most dramatic. For this reason, we particularly recommend supporting climate protection projects in developing countries.
What is special about climate protection projects such as "Stop the plastic flood - marine protection" and "Power from sugar cane waste - biomass"?
Climate protection projects demonstrably save greenhouse gases and make an important contribution to combating global warming. In addition, they promote sustainable development in the project countries on site, for example by improving the supply of clean drinking water, expanding the local infrastructure, creating jobs or protecting biodiversity.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a globally recognized benchmark for measuring these positive effects. These 17 goals include, for example, the fight against poverty and hunger, the promotion of education and the global diffusion of clean and affordable energy. Every climate protection project from the ClimatePartner portfolio contributes to several of these goals.
What makes a climate protection project a climate protection project?
In addition to reducing emissions, all climate protection projects must meet four basic criteria: additionality, exclusion of double counting, durability and verification by independent third parties. In order to prove compliance with the criteria, the projects are certified and checked according to strict criteria.
Your word at the end
In the textile sector in particular, the possibilities for reducing CO2 Emissions unbelievably large. I would like more companies to act like MONACO DUCK here. The production process in particular plays a major role. Most companies only think of the raw materials, but their processing into fabric and the associated energy consumption have a much greater impact on CO2 Output. For me, that was an important finding in my work and it shaped me, above all, in terms of consumer behavior. From an emissions point of view, it is better to buy less frequent and therefore higher quality products.
